More and more Americans are saying they think elections are unfair and rigged in favor of incumbents, a new Rasmussen Reports poll shows.
The national poll shows that nearly half of Americans (48 percent) say elections aren’t fair, which is the highest amount since 2004 when the poll began.
Where does the unfairness come into play? Of those polled, 68 percent said members of Congress get re-elected because the election process is rigged to benefit incumbents. Only 9 percent said they believe members of Congress win another term because they’ve done a good job. Nearly a quarter (23 percent) are unsure.
More on the poll from Rasmussen:
The Declaration of Independence says that governments derive their authority from the consent of the governed, but just 19% of voters think the federal government today actually has that consent. Sixty-two percent (62%) do not think the federal government has the consent of the governed, while 19% are undecided. This is consistent with surveying for the past four years.
In the most pessimistic finding yet, only 7 percent of those polled said the average representative in Congress listens to the voters the most. On the other hand, 83 percent said they believe their Congressional representatives listen to party leaders more than the voters they represent.
